[08/02/06 - 12:00 AM]Sci Fi Channel Closes Major Deal with CBS Paramount to Acquire Rights for Telefilms and Series Including 'Star Trek: Enterprise'

[via press release from Sci Fi]

SCI FI CHANNEL CLOSES MAJOR DEAL WITH CBS PARAMOUNT TO ACQUIRE RIGHTS FOR TELEFILMS AND SERIES INCLUDING 'STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE'

NEW YORK -- August 2, 2006 -- SCI FI Channel has acquired the rights to multiple made-for-television movies and series from CBS Paramount Domestic Television, including "Star Trek: Enterprise," the Star Trek prequel series starring Scott Bakula and Jolene Blalock, it was announced today by Thomas Vitale, SVP, Programming and Original Movies, SCI FI Channel. The deal also includes exclusive cable rights to the classic series "The Twilight Zone"; the series "Tales from the Darkside"; several Stephen King miniseries; made-for-TV movies, including "Primal Force" and "Trilogy of Terror II"; and series such as "Haunted," "Jake 2.0" and last fall's "Threshold."

"We are delighted to be able to deliver so many successful programs to our audience," said Mr. Vitale in making the announcement. "Our deal with CBS Paramount enables us to bring a great deal of fresh and extremely popular genre programming to our schedule."

Enterprise, which ran for four seasons between 2001-2005 on UPN, will premiere in early fall on the SCI FI Channel. The popular anthology series, "The Twilight Zone," created by Rod Serling, was renewed and will continue its exclusive run on the Channel. "Tales from the Darkside," the syndicated horror with a twist series, will premiere later this year.

Three highly acclaimed miniseries, including two from Stephen King, will also premiere exclusively this fall. "Invaders" stars Scott Bakula as a man who discovers an alien conspiracy and attempts to foil their plot by warning the earth of imminent danger. "The Langoliers," originally one of four short stories in the Stephen King novel "Four Past Midnight," stars Dean Stockwell and Patricia Wettig as passengers on a cross-country flight who awake to find that they and a small group of others are the only people left on earth. Based on the novel by Stephen King, "The Stand," starring Gary Sinise and Molly Ringwald, takes place in a world decimated by a man-made plague, where a battle of epic proportions ensues between the survivors,.

The deal also includes five made-for-television movies. "Inferno," directed by Dusty Nelson, stars Jeff Fahey and Janet Gunn; "Lost in the Bermuda Triangle" stars Tom Verica and Charlotte d'Amboise; "Primal Force" features Ron Perlman as a rescuer trying to reach plane crash victims trapped on an island with mutant baboons; "Sightings: Heartland Ghost," with Beau Bridges and Nia Long, revolves around the crew of a reality TV show about the paranormal, who visit a small Kansas town to investigate a house that may be haunted; and "Trilogy of Terror II," which begins where the first trilogy left off, featuring three spooky stories and starring Lysette Anthony.

Additionally, eight television series will premiere exclusively during the 2006-07 season.

"Haunted" follows Lost's Matthew Fox as a detective haunted by lost souls from beyond the grave.

"Threshold" stars Carla Gugino as part of a team of experts who are assembled when the U.S. Navy discovers an extraterrestrial craft has landed in the Atlantic Ocean.

Suspense thriller "Wolf Lake," set in the Pacific Northwest, explores what happens when werewolves overtake a small Seattle suburb. It stars Sharon Lawrence and Scott Bairstow.

Christopher Gorham is Jake 2.0, a computer technician who is involved in a freak accident and begins to operate at an atomic level, possessing superhuman strength, lightning-fast speed, heightened hearing, magnified vision and the ability to communicate telepathically with computers.

"Kindred, the Embraced" is a series based on the White Wolf role-playing game, Vampire: the Masquerade. Julian Luna, played by C. Thomas Howell, the undead Prince of the City, leads the Vampire Clans as he falls in love with Caitlin, a human reporter, played by Kelly Rutherford.

Fabrizio Filippo stars in "Level 9," which follows a top-secret government unit that serves as the nation's last-and-only line of defense against high-tech criminal plots.

Detectives Nick O'Malley (Michael Landes) and Kate Benson (Alexondra Lee) work in Special Unit 2, a secret precinct of the Chicago Police Department whose sole charge is to protect the city's citizens from Links, a malicious paranormal species that is the missing link between man and beast.

SCI FI Channel is a television network where "what if" is what's on. SCI FI fuels the imagination of viewers with original series and events, blockbuster movies and classic science fiction and fantasy programming, as well as a dynamic Web site (www.scifi.com) and magazine. Launched in 1992, and currently in 85 million homes, SCI FI Channel is a network of NBC Universal, one of the world's leading media and entertainment companies.